Coronavirus: Australian vaccine fears amid global supply threats

Australia will make its own decision on whether AstraZeneca’s COVID jab is effective for the elderly, as Aussie expats face more difficulties getting home. The head of the TGA Professor John Skerritt has indicated there is no risk to the elderly from the vaccine, but the authority has yet to approve the vaccine. The UK had no concerns about using the vaccine across the same age group during their preliminary rollout, Mr Hunt said. Australia had contracts to supply 140 million doses of different vaccines and was prepared for a range of outcomes if the AstraZeneca vaccine could not be used in the elderly, he said. 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are being produced locally in Australia, which Minister Hunt says will not be exported overseas. “With regards to the 50 million doses, they are direct contract between the Australian Government and CSL and therefore for delivery here in Australia. We don’t see in any circumstances under which they wouldn’t be provided in full to Australia,” he said. Mr Hunt also said Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne was contacting the World Health Organisation and European authorities to secure supplies of alternative vaccines under contract for Australia where they are being produced overseas. Mr Hunt welcomed positive clinical trial results of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine overnight. Australia has purchased over 50 million doses of the vaccine, with Mr Hunt saying it will be supplied to Australia in the second half of this year. Two million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be available to Australians from late March, and vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine will commence in late February, Mr Hunt clarified. Highly infectious new variants of the COVID-19 virus, particularly one from South Africa, appear to be outsmarting existing vaccines which are not as effective against them as earlier strains. Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax have already signalled they are working on new vaccines to combat the latest variants and this could challenge Australia’s vaccine rollout. “I’d be cautious on making judgments on existing vaccines against the variance at this point in time, that will remain a matter for the vaccine advisory committee and the medical regulator,” Mr Hunt said. There was not yet any advice that changes to Australia’s vaccine program was needed yet, Mr Hunt said. “One of the hallmarks of our approach has been to prepare and to adapt,” he said. TRAVEL BUBBLE COULD REOPEN WITHIN WEEKS Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia’s travel bubble with New Zealand could resume if there are no further community trasmitted cases of COVID-19. “We’re going to be considering tomorrow and if there are continued excellent results then we hope to be in a position to resume that in the coming days,” he said. If further charter flights were required to bring Australians home after confusion caused by the UK border closure they would be added, he said. Earlier, Australian vaccine supply concerns emerged as Pfizer may switch manufacturing of its vaccine to the US in order to fulfil global supply agreements. The move may also sidestep EU export restrictions that could threaten supply, including those 10 million doses allocated to Australia. The Australian reports that Pfizer said it had tested the jab against the UK and South African strain of COVID-19 and said the differences were “unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine”. It is now uncertain how soon the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will make it to Australia, as an initial batch of 80,000 doses was meant to be heading to Australia within the next few weeks. NEW EMIRATES FLIGHT BAN Thousands of Australians hoping to return home had their travel plans thrown into chaos. Britain has closed its borders to all flights from Dubai to stop the spread of the South African variant. All Emirates flights were cancelled, leaving a mad scramble to book on other flights, with Qatar remaining one of the few routes back home. Emirates had only just resumed flights after stopping routes into Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne following Australia’s quarantine caps. Qantas still has almost 20 repatriation flights to go before March, but they have been selling out within 15 minutes as 40,000 Australians still remain wanting to return home. “As directed by the UK government, Emirates will be suspending passenger services between Dubai and all our UK points – Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Manchester, effective 1300hrs GMT on 29 January 2021 until further notice,” Emirate said in a statement. “We regret the inconvenience caused, and affected customers should contact their booking agent or Emirates call centre for rebooking.” The UK has tightened its borders as its vaccine program gathers pace with more than 7.5 million delivered so far. The country was following Australia’s lead in bringing in hotel quarantine for people from high risk countries, while some countries have been black-listed. NEW VACCINE HOPE FOR MUTANT STRAINS New results show that the highly contagious mutant UK and South African coronavirus variants can be beaten by one of Australia’s key vaccine candidates. But, as is the case with other COVID-19 vaccines, the Novavax jab proved much less effective against the South African variant — 60 per cent successful compared to 95.6 per cent against the original version of the virus. The company is already working on developing a new shot to beat the South African variant. University of NSW infectious diseases expert Professor Raina MacIntyre said the news from Novavax was “mixed”. “This is also the first evidence that clinical efficacy is reduced against the variants of concern that have arisen in the UK and South Africa,” she said. We urgently need to know the efficacy of other vaccines in the Australian plan, such as Astra Zeneca and Pfizer, against these variants, and plan accordingly, she said. “They all target the same protein, so we can expect reduced efficacy to variant strains with these vaccines. These are likely to become the dominant strains globally and are more contagious, and the B117 appears to be more severe,” she said. “In Manaus, Brazil, the P1 variant, which has mutations in the same three regions as the South African variant, seems to be infecting people who were already infected in 2020, so it’s like a new pandemic. Meanwhile, our border control measures are more important than ever to mitigate the risk of variant strains causing an epidemic here,” she said. Dr Adam Taylor from Griffith University said the Novavax results were a further indication that a new generation of COVID-19 vaccines will likely be required to combat emerging variants of the virus. Novavax revealed on Friday morning that Phase 3 trials in the UK had shown 89.3 per cent efficacy in general. More than 50 per cent of the cases involved the UK variant, which transmits much more easily than previous strains of the virus. The vaccine displayed 85.6 per cent efficacy against the UK variant strain. A Stage 2 study of the Novavax jab in South Africa showed a 60 per cent efficacy. Australia has 51 million doses of the Novavax jab on order, which were due to be delivered this year from European factories. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the Novavax results. “Good news that the @Novavax vaccine has proved effective in UK trials. Thank you to all the volunteers who made these results possible,” he said. Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce Clive Dix was also heartened. “These are spectacular results, and we are very pleased to have helped Novavax with the development of this vaccine,” he said. “The efficacy shown against the emerging variants is also extremely encouraging. “This is an incredible achievement that will ensure we can protect individuals in the UK and the rest of the world from this virus.” TREASURER RESISTS MORE JOBKEEPER TO QLD Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has said “substantial” measures are already in place to help struggling tourism businesses in Queensland, and has not confirmed whether the federal government will offer more financial support. “We will continue to monitor the situation. We do recognise the tourism sector has been hit particularly hard,” he told Sky News. “The Morrison government has been doing the bulk of the heavy lifting and will continue to support Queenslanders.” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has requested the Morrison government extend JobKeeper for tourism businesses. The Treasurer said Jobkeeper has “only been one of many” economic measures that the government has rolled out to support struggling businesses. NSW There are no restrictions around travelling to or from regional or rural NSW, or other areas of NSW. However, NSW Health currently recommends practising COVID safe behaviours such as physical distancing and hand hygiene when travelling within NSW, especially between Greater Sydney and regional and rural areas. There are no permits required for people entering NSW from interstate. SOUTH AUSTRALIA From Sunday, January 31, Sydneysiders are expected to be allowed to travel into South Australia. But visitors will need to be tested on day one, five and 12 of their stay and must isolate until they receive a negative result from their first swab. Health authorities were waiting for the hotspot area to go 14 days without any recorded cases of community transmission before easing border restrictions. If no new locally acquired cases are recorded in Greater Sydney, the borders will open to Sydneysiders as of 12.01am on Sunday. Travellers from outside of the Greater Sydney area will have no restrictions and do not need to be tested. Travellers from other states and territories can enter without restriction but must complete a Cross Border Travel Registration. VICTORIA People from anywhere in Australia entering Victoria must apply for a permit to enter the state. Victoria has also reopened its border to the majority of NSW. However, those from the Cumberland LGA will need to apply for an “orange zone” permit, meaning travellers from the area will need to take a COVID-19 test within 72 hours after arriving in Victoria and isolate both before and after the test. NORTHERN TERRITORY All arrivals to the Northern Territory (NT) must fill in a Border Entry Form and complete 14 days of mandatory supervised quarantine at their own expense, if they have recently been in an active declared COVID-19 hot spot. This includes children returning from a hotspot. QUEENSLAND From Monday, February 1, anyone who has been in any part of New South Wales will be able to enter Queensland, by any means of travel, without having to quarantine or having to complete a border pass People from other parts of Australia can travel to Queensland freely. WESTERN AUSTRALIA Interstate travel is permitted into and around WA, depending on where travellers have come from and who they’ve had contact with in the 14 days prior to travel. They are also subject to conditions, including completing a G2G PASS declaration prior to entry. The ACT, NT, SA and Tasmania are deemed very low risk. Travellers from Victoria, NSW and Queensland are deemed low risk and are required self-quarantine at a suitable premises for 14 days, or at a Government-approved quarantine facility at their own expense. TASMANIA From Sunday, January 31, Tasmania will fully open its border with NSW. People from others states and territories can travel to Tasmania without restriction. AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY People from anywhere in Australia can travel to the ACT without restriction.